Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to facilitating the purchase of items on a social networking website.
Related Art
Social networks enable connections between members (including people, businesses, and other entities) and have become extremely popular as Internet websites in recent years. In particular, social network websites allow registered members to openly communicate and efficiently share information with other registered members. Such information sharing includes indicators of members (users) own tastes in various areas, such as music, literature, entertainment, sports, and the like.
Consumers are discovering more and more products on social platforms such as Pinterest®, Twitter®, Facebook®, and Houzz®. Most often, consumers discover products they like via social sharing and from wish lists on idea boards or pin boards. Industry statistics show that there is a high degree of correlation between discovering a product, sharing the product, and actually purchasing the product. Frequently, however, a consumer is inconvenienced by having to leave the social networking site and go through a process with the merchant for making the purchase before returning back to the original site. Because of this inconvenience, a consumer may simply forgo any purchase while on the social networking site, resulting in potential lost sales for merchants.
Thus, a need exists for systems and methods that allow a consumer to buy items directly from a social networking site.
Embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages are best understood by referring to the detailed description that follows. It should be appreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify like elements illustrated in one or more of the figures, wherein showings therein are for purposes of illustrating embodiments of the present disclosure and not for purposes of limiting the same.